Fertamia Smith, 35, was last seen with Randle outside her Bellwood residence the morning of April 5, 2009. The two had four children, and while they were no longer living together they communicated frequently.

Smith told a relative that she was going to church and Randle was driving her, authorities said.

Three days later her body was found in the trunk of Randle’s Ford Taurus parked on 68th Street near the Dan Ryan Expressway on the south side of Chicago. She had been shot once in the chest, authorities said. Randle turned himself in to Chicago police a short time later.

No witnesses testified to seeing Randle shoot Smith. And the murder weapon was never found.

Cell phone records of both Randle and Smith’s phones show the path that Randle took in the hours after he picked her up on April 5, 2009, prosecutors said.

That path leads from Bellwood into the West Side of the city and then to the South Side near where the car was found, authorities said.

Cell phone records also show that Randle later drove south to Georgia on Tuesday, April 7 and that Smith’s phone was in the car with him. He returned to Chicago the next day and turned himself in.

Assistant Public Defender Kulmeet Galhotra did not deny that Randle shot Smith. But he said the shooting was an accident and that Randle’s actions show he panicked, fled and then returned to face the consequences.

Assistant State’s Attorney Jamie Santini said someone who accidentally kills the mother of his four children does not stuff her body in the trunk of a car.

Santini described Randle as a “manipulative murderer” who bought himself more time by delaying a call to the police.